History of the Narmer Palette
The Narmer Palette is a ceremonial shield shaped palette that depicts the 31st century Pharaoh, Narmer, unifying Upper and Lower Egypt; either side of the palette shows various tasks he performed to accomplish this. Discovery The Narmer Palette was discovered at the Hierakonpolis excavation site in 1897-98 by British archaeologist, James Edward Quibell, along with Frederick W. Green. It was discovered at the Temple of Horus in the ancient capital of the Upper Kingdom, Hierakonpolis. The palette was found along with the Narmer Macehead, another artifact which shows the completion of the conquest of the Lower Kingdom. Creation The Narmer Palette was created in the 31st century BC. It was possibly a gift from the King to his father, the god Amun-Ra("Father", according to the Egyptian belief that pharaohs were sons of gods). The usage of it may have been like of other palettes, to grind cosmetics for temple ceremonies. Upper Kingdom Conquering Lower Kingdom Side On the first side on the palette, depicting Narmer wearing the White Crown of the Upper Kingdom, there are two scenes, with Narmer's name in a serekh in between two bull heads at the top. The fish, n'r, and the chisel below, mr, form N'rmr, which means Catfish. In the first scene, which takes up most of the space on the palette, the King is the dominant figure. He is wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt, and has a mace in one hand, and the hair of a man in the other. The mace is intended to go for the kneeling man's head. In front of the King is the symbol for royaly, the falcon Horus of Nekhen. He is on top of a number of papyrus blossoms, which stands for one thousand in hieroglyphs. The number of blossoms is six, so six thousand. The papyrus blossoms are over a marshland, which is a symbol for Lower Egypt. This being over the kneeling man's head, symbolizes the conquest of Lower Egypt by Upper Egypt. Finally, at the bottom are two fallen enemies and their town. Lower Kingdom Side The other side of the palette has the same serekh symbolizing Narmer at the top, on either side of it a bull's head. On this side there are three scenes. In the first, the King is back again, but this time wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. He holds a mace and flail this time, which are symbols of royalty. To help clarify he is the same person, his name is put again next to him. Behind him is his Sandal bearer, and in front his female vizir called Tjet, who is holding a scepter. Both of these figures are smaller than the king, representing their separate social class. In the center of the scene is the (even smaller than the two figures accompanying the king) front part of a procession of sorts, heading to ten dead, decapitated beings. The dead represent the fallen enemies of the king. In the second scene, there are two person tying together the extremely long necks of two (possibly) lions. This most likely represents the coming together and unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. In the third scene, a bull is running over an enemy. This represents the king's power and dominance. SPICE Social Socially, you can see a clear class system from the palette. On the first side, the king is the largest figure, and in the background, there is the sandal bearer. This shows us who was more prominent in the Egyptian Society. On the second side, the King is taller than the sandal bearer and vizir, and much taller than the rest of the procession. This shows the level of importance/rank of the society. Also, notably the vizer is the only female anywhere on the palette. This shows that that job was probably at least generally a female job, and the job of the sandal bearer a male's job. Political Tying in with the Social, the King is always depicted as larger and distant from his subjects in the palette; this shows how the leader is a distant person and far away and above his subjects. Another important political aspect of it is the King is shown wearing both the White Crown of Upper Egypt and the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. This symbolizes he is the king of both lands through his conquests, and the unifier of the two. Also, the King is the only one shown in the act of killing a person, and there is conveniently no sight of an army of his. This makes one tend to think only the King was the destroyer of the enemy, and he was powerful enough to do it alone. Of course that was not true, but if it makes the king seem more powerful, of course the army of his would be left out by the artist who worked for the king in making it. Intellectual Intellectually, the Narmer Palette leads us to learn much about the Ancient Egyptians. First, it is one of the earliest pieces found that contains hieroglyphic writing. Dated at the 31st century BC, it predates most forms of written communication in general as well. This shows us how advanced the Egyptians were, to have developed a system of writing that long ago. Cultural Culturally, the Narmer Palette tells us much. First, being a very intricately decorated palette, we get a sense for the style and form of Egyptian art at that time. While typically palettes were used for grinding cosmetics, this palette, due to its size and intricacy, may have been a purely decorative item in the Temple of Horus, though possibly, it could have been used for large scale grinding of cosmetics for rituals many people participated in. This tells us that there were rituals in the Egyptian culture, and they used makeup as part of it. Also, through the art on the palette, we can see that warring and conquest was a perfectly okay thing to do for Ancient Egyptians, and through the depiction of the bull trampling the man, we can see that the most masculine and vigorous were looked up to and admired in the culture. Another thing is the central scene on the second side of the palette. There are two feline creatures, which could be panthers. Panthers were the symbols for the eastern and western heavens; tying them together would represent harmony. Finally, we see on the first palette that the King is barefoot in killing his enemy, with the sandal bearer holding his shoes. This shows that the king was executing the enemy in a holy place, possibly to honor some god of his. Economic Economically, there isn't much going on with the Narmer Palette. However, as the palette is symbolizing the conquering/unifying of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms, so we can infer that there was a need to conquer the enemy and unite the two sides. This may have been for resources, more labor, or possibly to increase trade. thumb|Either side of the Narmer Palette Bibliography * What a King Is This: Narmer and the Concept of the Ruler Toby A. H. Wilkinson The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 86, (2000), pp. 23-32 Published by: Egypt Exploration Society . *''The Narmer Macehead and Related Objects'' N. B. Millet Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 27, (1990), pp. 53-59' Published by: American Research Center in Egypt . *''A Revised View of the Naʿrmr Palette'' W. A. Fairservis Jr. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 28, (1991), pp. 1-20 Published by: American Research Center in Egypt *"Narmer Palette." Online Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 25 Apr. 2009 . *"Menes." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition.25 Apr. 2009 . *"Hierakonpolis." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition.25 Apr. 2009 . *Raffaele, Francesco. "Narmer Macehead." Photo. Early Dynastic Egypt: Some Images 20 April. 2009. < http://xoomer.virgilio.it/francescoraf/hesyra/Egyptgallery071.html >. *Raffaele, Francesco. "Narmer Macehead." Photo. Early Dynastic Egypt: Some Images 20 April. 2009. < http://xoomer.virgilio.it/francescoraf/hesyra/Egyptgallery071.html >. *Dunn, Jimmy “J.E Quibell.” Photo. King Catfish, Also Called Narmer. 20 April. 2009. < http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/narmer.htm >. *''THE NARMER PALETTE''. 1992. Université du Québec à Montréal. April 25 2009. < http://www.ptahhotep.com/articles/Narmer_palette.html >. * "The Narmer Palette: Ceremonial Palette of King Narmer, Early Dynastic Period, circa 3000 BC". Photo. Allposters.com 27 April. 2009. .